The Kent Downtown Partnership hosts its annual dinner auction on Friday, June 1 at the accesso ShoWare Center.<\/p>\n
More than 150 business and community leaders will gather to celebrate the efforts and achievements made to revitalize Kent’s downtown core.<\/p>\n
This year’s theme is “Bring the Moon to Downtown Kent,” a nod to KDP’s goal to bring a Lunar Rover replica to a downtown park.<\/p>\n
According to Kent Downtown Partnership president Mike Hanis, many people don’t know such an amazing part of history was built right here in Kent.<\/p>\n
First built in Kent at the Boeing Space Center in 1969, three Lunar Rovers travelled to the moon on Apollo Missions 15, 16, and 17; the Lunar Rovers remain on the moon’s surface today.<\/p>\n
“Besides raising funds to support our organizations’ efforts, with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo program next year, our board believes this is perfect time to commemorate the legacy of space exploration in our community,” Hanis said. “Having a Lunar Rover replica located downtown will foster community pride, honor our past, fuel our kids’ imaginations and inspire us to imagine what’s possible in the future.”<\/p>\n
Event attendees will be able to support the Lunar Rover project directly during the “fund a need” portion of the evening.<\/p>\n
The event will feature special guests Michael Lombardi, Kent resident and corporate historian at The Boeing Co., and Harris Atkins, a retired Boeing aerospace engineer and manager on the Lunar Rover project. Both men will share some unknown details about the Lunar Rover program and what it was like to complete such an engineering feat for NASA in only 14 months.<\/p>\n